“Come here, kitty,” Elinor cooed, crouched at her bedside again, trying to coax Newton out from beneath her bed.
Once again, he was curled up on her cloak, and she couldn’t help the tenderness in her chest from hearing his little purrs.
He blinked at her sleepily, and she stroked between his pointed ears. Stretching out his front paws, Elinor tapped the white tips of them.
“That is it,” she encouraged. “Come on.”
She jingled his lilac-colored leash in further coaxing, and Newton’s ears twitched.
“What are you doing?”
Elinor startled so hard at her stepmother’s voice coming from behind her that she knocked her back on the side of her bedframe. She ducked out, facing Lady Morland. Newton took that moment to emerge, and she quickly scooped him up before he could bolt at the sight of her stepmother.
“I am taking Newton out for a walk, like I usually do,” Elinor told her.
It was the morning she was due to meet the Duke of Fairmont, and all she wanted was for it to go smoothly and not be disturbed, but her stepmother’s face paled in horror.
“Where?”
“Hyde Park,” Elinor said slowly, “as usual, like I said.”
“No!” Her stepmother hissed. “No, not alone, you cannot.”
“I will have my lady’s maid,” Elinor insisted.
Please do not make Joanna or Belinda come, please do not?—
“No, she was useless when you argued with poor Lord Thompson. He is still humiliated and has not been able to go out in public since your outburst.”
Then perhaps he knows he was wrong,Elinor responded in her mind.
“Stepmother—”
“No, I forbid it.” She shook her head furiously. “Not after that embarrassment. I will not risk it. You will be accompanied.”
“Stepmother, I will behave,” Elinor insisted, dread pitting in her stomach. No, she really needed to be alone. “I will be on my utmost best behavior. I only wish to walk Newton. I will not even speak to anyone, and, as Belinda often points out, nobody speaks to me or approaches, either. There is really no risk.”
She was rambling, desperate in her need to go alone, to have the plan with the duke go without a hitch. Too much rode on it.
“I will come with you,” her stepmother said firmly. “I will not risk you being foolish, no matter what you say. You have not yet proven to me that I can trust you, so I will accompany you. Joanna and Belinda, too. Heavens knows those girls need to get some promenading in.” Then, a light went on in her eyes, and Elinor’s dread grew. “Besides, I am certain His Grace will be taking a morning stroll. Belinda can manage a chance meeting with him.”
Oh, he will be strolling, but it will not be to see you or your spoiled daughter.
Panic clawed up Elinor’s throat as she prepared Newton with shaking hands. How could she get out of it? There had to be a way, there had to besomeway?—
“Belinda! Joanna! Prepare yourselves,” her stepmother called out, whirling out of her rooms. “We are promenading in Hyde Park. Belinda, wear your best morning dress.”
“What of me, Mama?” Joanna called, their voices distant as they came upstairs from wherever they had spent their morning after breakfast.
Elinor didn’t hear her stepmother’s response, couldn’t focus on that, not when she tried to steady her breathing, not knowing how she could endure this.
Her hands trembled violently. She pressed her face into Newton’s tiny head, trying to find comfort in the responding purrs.
“Please do not aggravate them,” she whispered. “My nerves are frayed, and I know you dislike them for how they treat me, but we must both behave, all right?”
Newton gave a littlemeowin response. Elinor gave herself another few moments to stroke his rounded body, carding her fingers through his soft fur. She thought about brushing him briefly to further steel herself, but her stepmother entered her room.
“We will depart in five minutes,” she told her, and Elinor’s heart sank, nodding.